To juxtapose the Peer Gynt music of Grieg and Saeverud on record is such an obvious idea that it is astonishing that no one has thought of it before. It has been done in the concert-hall and on radio programmes but this is the first time I have encountered it on record. It was inevitable that there should be a reaction against the pictorialism and romanticism of Grieg’s Peer Gynt, particularly after the upheaval of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation of Norway, and when Saeverud was approached by Hans Jacob Nilsen to compose his incidental music, it was for a realistic production shorn of sentiment and glamour.
Saeverud’s score for the play has no vestige of romanticism, not a trace of gentility, and its musical language is robust and uncouth. It is full of character, whether it is in “Peer-ludium”, the portrayal of the cocky Peer himself, the wild and lascivious “Anitra” (nothing demure about her) or the splendidly earthy “Devil’s Five-hop” and the equally brilliant “Dovretroll jog”. There have been a number of recordings of it since Nicolai Malko’s pioneering set in the late 1940s (on Danish HMV) but this is as good as any.
The Norwegian Radio Orchestra may not match the Oslo Philharmonic in sumptuousness of tone (nor is that called for in the Saeverud) but they are a highly accomplished body with great refinement of colour and tone, and Ari Rasilainen draws splendid, well-characterized playing from them. On balance I would slightly prefer their account of Saeverud’s score to the most recent rival listed above, but they are both excellent. The familiar Grieg suites are hardly less fine. The new recording is refined, most realistic in perspective and ideally balanced.'